


Organic Nomenclature

by sansos



Series: Daily Life of Dr. Kuroo [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, there is so much science in this you have been warned, yaku deserves an award for dealing with kuroo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24647026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansos/pseuds/sansos
Summary: “No one’s going to write all that crap onto a label,” he sang out as he shrugged. “They’ll always write DHA, kitten.”“Well first of all, don’t call me kitten. That’s gross."--In which you meet the ex-captain of Nekoma's volleyball team in your first year chemistry class.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou & Reader, Kuroo Tetsurou/Reader
Series: Daily Life of Dr. Kuroo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1787737
Comments: 17
Kudos: 238





	1. First Year

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted on my Tumblr as usual
> 
> This serves as the prequel to the Dr. Kuroo series

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been sitting in my drafts for the past month... I wrote the first chapter when the idea first came to mind so this chapter has also been sitting in my drafts for the past month. Oops...
> 
> Enjoy the organic chemistry lesson that no one asked for!

“Can anyone name this structure? It’s a bit daunting at first, but definitely doable with everything you’ve learnt the past week,” the professor said as he projected the chemical structure up on the screen.

“Hmm,” you mumbled to yourself as you scribbled the structure down in your notes. “There’s 22 carbons in the backbone… docosane? But then there’s 6 double bonds… So it’ll be docosahexaene… I’ll probably have to worry about symmetry also,” you continued as you circled the functional groups. “Ah, a carboxylic acid, so it probably ends with -oic acid, hmm…”

You were one month into your first year in university, and one step closer to achieving your dream of joining the ranks of the researchers in the field of inorganic chemistry. The only thing standing in your way now was… organic chemistry. Unfortunately not your strongest area, but you were still determined to succeed in the course. After all, knowledge was still knowledge, and it would certainly come in useful later on.

“That’s docosahexaenoic acid, isn’t it,” a voice next to you loudly blurted out. You whip your head to the side to glare at the owner of the voice, furious that someone dared to not raise their hand first. Your eyes landed on what was probably the worst case of bedhead you had ever seen sitting right next to you —could he even brush his hair? The owner of the terrible hair looked incredibly bored, with his body slumped against the chair and his right cheek resting against his hand.

“That’s right, but that’s not the IUPAC name for it,” the professor said with a soft smile. You rolled your eyes at the young man who just nonchalantly shrugged at the lecturer’s response.

You raised your hand up, and when called, took another glance at your notes and loudly said, “(4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)-docosa-4,7,10,13,16,19-hexaenoic acid.”

Your instructor gave a small clap, nodding happily at the correct response that you had just supplied. “Impressive, you even got the symmetry right!”

You gave a sheepish grin and said a quick “thank you” before enthusiastically settling back into your seat for the rest of the class.

“IUPAC’s useless if you ask me, nothing to be happy about,” came an annoyed voice from your right as you started to pack your bag as the professor dismissed the class.

“Excuse me?” You retorted, leaning over the armrest of your seat in an effort to assert your dominance.

“No one’s going to write all that crap onto a label,” he sang out as he shrugged. “They’ll always write DHA, kitten.”

“Well first of all, don’t call me kitten. That’s gross. Secondly, you have to write it out in a journal if you want to publish,” you rebutted, narrowing your eyes at the black haired man who dared to go against you.

“Well, that’s what google’s for,” he said as he got up from his chair and slung his backpack behind him, peering down at you from above.

 _Why is this guy so god damn tall,_ you thought to yourself from your seat as you slowly started to rise up. Even standing at full height, you still had to raise your head up to meet his eyes. _Stupid tall people_.

“Just admit you’re bad at chemistry.”

“I’ll have you know I’m actually q-u-i-t-e good,” he replied with a wink, as a hand shot out from behind him and gave him a soft shake.

“Oi, Kuroo, we have to go, stop picking a fight with everyone!” Came a voice from behind. Rooster head’s eyes shot wide open as he slowly turned around to face the owner of the voice. A short man with blond hair stood behind him with his arms against his hips.

 _It looks like a mom yelling at her son,_ you thought to yourself, trying, though failing, to hold back a snicker.

“HEY!” The man who must be called Kuroo yelled out as he suddenly took a step forward towards you. “I’ll have you know that I’m actually really good at what counts and is important,” he said tilting his head to look straight down at you.

“Bring it, rooster head,” you shot back, leaning closer towards him with your hands firmly on your hips. “I’d like to see you try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For whatever reason, Tumblr refuses to include this chapter in its tags... Sigh.


	2. Second Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow this ended up 3x the length of chapter 1..

You clutched on tightly to your laboratory notebook, feeling the plastic coiled spine digging into the palms of your hand. As a science student, you had to take the mandatory chemistry laboratory sessions in first year, but those were all so _controlled_. Phenolphthalein titrations, pH measurements with electrodes, and the occasional redox reactions were exciting when you were in high school, but you couldn’t help but be disappointed when you found out that all of your first year labs would follow a similar pattern. You were in university —you were supposed to be experiencing science at the highest level, not mull over basic laboratory techniques that you had honed throughout high school! You did well in first year —heck, you were the top student in the laboratory session —but you really wanted to do _more_ , to use the chemicals you couldn’t get elsewhere and to constantly toy with the threat of death. Something about using dangerous chemicals was just so enticing to you, it was hard to explain.

Now in second year, this was your chance to learn about _real_ chemistry. With your exemplary performance in first year chemistry, you were invited into the honors program by the head of the department himself —an offer you immediately accepted. You revelled at the thought of having the opportunity to write your own thesis and tackle additional courses to further immerse yourself into the world of the unknown. You had heard from your upperclassmen about how nearly all of the reagents posed as potential health threats, and that the chemical they were exceedingly cautious about in first year, trichloromethane, was routinely used in all experiments.

With a nod of your head, you slipped the safety glasses sitting atop your head down to your nose bridge and walked into the laboratory to huddle up with the rest of the students in front of the instructor and the whiteboard. It was time to finally get to experience chemistry for what it really was.

“You’ve been randomly paired up with another student in the section and the two of you will be working together for the rest of the school year,” the instructor explained. “You’ve all been assigned a bench number, so head on over and the person to your right will be your new best friend… Hopefully,” he finished as he gestured over to the rows of lab benches.

You breathed in deeply as you silently repeated “Please let me have a good partner,” over and over again in a prayer. There was a girl wearing a pair of wireframe glasses two heads away from you in the front. She seemed pretty level-headed, wouldn’t be a bad candidate for a partner. Your eyes darted to the person to your right where a guy in a purple hoodie with his hands in his lab coat pockets stood. Unlike the large majority of the group, he seemed ridiculously calm and relaxed; perhaps he had prior experience in a lab? It wouldn’t be bad to have him as your partner, either.

You repeated the wish over and over your head as you walked over to your assigned bench. You could feel your heart pounding inside of your ribcage as worry started to consume you. With a deep exhale, you closed your eyes and tried to calm down and control your breathing to slow the rapid beating of your heart.

 _Believe in yourself_ , you thought in your head as you started planning out counter strategies in the event that you got paired up with someone not… _good,_ for lack of a better word. If they were clueless, you just had to teach them. If they were bad at a skill, you could just do it yourself. _Yes, having a bad partner would be bad, but it would be fine_. You could make do.

 _But_ , if you couldn’t get along with your partner… That would be trouble. You could feel your pulse pick up again and you squeezed your eyes tighter as you shook the thought away from your mind. You couldn’t be thinking so negatively before you even _met_ your partner. The chances of that happening were practically zero. Everything would be fine.

 _And besides, I think I can get along with everyone from last year well enough_ , you thought. Your mind drifted off to the rude encounter with the rooster-haired man from your first year chemistry class. _Well, almost everyone_. You hadn’t seen him since the first time you spoke, but the interaction had left a sour taste in your mouth. But really, what were the chances that you would have to deal with him, anyways? There were significantly less people in second year chemistry, and to add on to that, each laboratory section could only hold at most 20 students. The chances of having to deal with that…annoying person would be so slim it might as well be negligible.

Yes, you had nothing to worry about. There were bigger and better things to worry about.

“If you squeeze your eyes so tight your eyeball will pop out, kitten,” a deep voice quipped from in front of you. You opened your eyes and were met with _literally_ what you just worked out to be impossible.

“You have got to be kidding me,” you grumbled as you glared at the person standing in front of you. “Out of all the sections offered, _you_ of all people just had to be my partner for the rest of the year,” you cursed, punctuating each word with the irritation bubbling up within you.

“Hey kitten, I didn’t ask for this either,” your partner retorted as he folded his arms in front of his chest and shot you a look full of annoyance. “Now I know we’re going to fail,” he jeered as your mouth dropped open.

“Excuse me?” You nearly screeched out loud. “I’ll have you know that I had the second highest average in the whole course across all the first years last year,” you argued as your hands clenched into a tight fist.

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Kuroo scoffed as he took another step closer, looking down at you from above. “That’s not first.”

“It’s enough to beat you,” you fumed as you leaned back, straightening your shoulders and placing your hands on your hips. There were so many people in first year that the chances of anyone scoring higher than you was close to impossible. After all, being second meant that only _one_ person would have done better than you, and you were near certain that it was not the _fiend_ in front of you.

Perhaps that line of thinking was what led to your face twisting into one of utter confusion when you heard Kuroo roar out in laughter.

“No it’s not,” he wheezed between laughs, hands now clutching onto his stomach to further communicate how much of a joke he found your bold statement. Your eyes widened as Kuroo leaned in closer until he was inches away from your face.

“I was the the top student in the course last year, kitten,” he mocked, “and I was second in the laboratory component, so I’m pretty much better than you in every way,” he finished off with a shrug of his shoulders.

Now it was your turn to laugh. And laugh you did. You let out the most mocking and obnoxious laugh that you could summon from the depth of your chest, and now it was your turn to lean in closer to his face —a mysterious twinkle in your eyes.

“I’ll concede that I was only number two in the course, but I’ll have you know that I,” you pointed at yourself, “Was first in the laboratory component, so who’s really better now?” Your smug grin widened as you witnessed Kuroo take a step back, now dumbfounded and speechless.

You turned back over to the counter and picked up your lab notebook, waving it in front of your new partner’s face. “Let’s go over the protocol we thought up in the pre-lab first, yeah?” Kuroo looked over at you, raising an eyebrow, “You want my opinion on this? Aren’t you Miss Genius-At-Lab?”

  
You rolled your eyes in response and walked over to pick up his notebook, flipping through the pages to find the one titled with the day’s experiment. “You still need to work hard even if you are a genius. With what I want to do, being a genius or not doesn’t even matter, not that I’m a genius or anything. I just need to always work hard,” you explained to him as you compared your procedure with his. “Besides, no matter how much I hate you as a person, I’ll have to acknowledge that you’re good at this,” you finished. Kuroo leaned over and quietly observed you as you nodded to yourself, satisfied to see that your procedures had matched up well.

“And what do you want to do?” He asked, breaking the silence that had settled.

“Ever heard of clinical chemistry?” You answered back. Kuroo nodded, and you continued, “I want to develop new techniques and tests that exploit the use of metal catalysts to help with diagnosis.” Kuroo squatted down to rummage through the drawer for the Erlenmeyer flask and clamps that the procedure had called for. “That’s kind of niche,” he murmured from his spot. “Though admirable, didn’t expect you to have wanted to do that.”

“What, did you expect me to want to do something else?” You chuckled as you joined him in the hunt for all the equipment.

“Took you for a more biochemistry person I suppose,” he answered as he mentally checked off all the glassware he had acquired from his search from the list you had written in your notebook. You shot him a quizzical look, and he put his hands up in front of him, palms facing you.

“Thought you’d be like me and want to go into cell biology research I guess,” he answered. “Hey, what’s so funny!” He demanded as he noticed you try, and fail, to hide a snort.

“Nothing,” you insisted as you put on your best straight face. Kuroo huffed in annoyance, knowing full well that you had just lied to his face. “Just didn’t take you for someone who wanted to go into research.” You picked up the notebook and glanced at the now cluttered bench top. “Looks like everything’s here. Do you want to assemble everything while I grab the reagents?”

Kuroo nodded in agreement at the plan, and you walked on over to the fume hood to grab the reagents required for the experiment as he started to assemble the pieces of the apparatus. You hadn’t taken the young man with the horrible case of bedhead to have an interest in biochemistry research. It was rather rare for someone to actively pursue a career in research so early on in the field, after all. Usually you’d cycle through multiple potential career paths before accidentally landing on something that you liked. You were usually the odd exception when talking about future plans with your peers, having decided since you were young that clinical chemistry was your calling.

But the way he had stated his goal as if it was fact, and the determined look that had glazed over his eyes indicated that he too had made the decision early on as well.

 _Perhaps he’s a decent partner after all,_ you thought to yourself as you walked back to your lab bench.

Rather than be greeted by the properly assembled work station with the west condenser hooked up to the tap when you arrived back at your shared bench, what met you instead was a grumbling Kuroo with a soaked lab coat who was busy trying to wipe all the water off of his face. You laughed amusedly as you set down the chemicals in your hands and passed Kuroo a paper towel from the side.

“You don’t even know how to set up a west condenser?” You sniggered as Kuroo shot you a dirty look as he once again tried, and failed, to hook up the surgical tubing to the glassware. “Here, let me help,” you said with a shit eating grin, very much enjoying every second of Kuroo’s struggle, as you gently pushed him aside and swiftly detached whatever mess Kuroo had cooked up and assembled the equipment properly.

“Thanks,” he muttered under his breath as he looked to the side, refusing to make eye contact with you. Obviously you heard him —he was directly next to you— but being the amazing person you were, you decided to pretend to miss it and tease him some more.

“What was that? I didn’t quite catch that,” you responded, your smirk only growing bigger as Kuroo’s patience started deteriorating.

“I SAID, THANK YOU, YOU DUMBASS,” Kuroo practically screamed out loud, sharply bowing such that his back was parallel to the ground in a motion that scared even you.

“Oi, second years! Stop fooling around!” A TA yelled out in your direction as they made a note in their clipboard about the horseplay they just witnessed. _Undergraduates_ , they thought with a roll of their eyes.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again!” You yelled in response as you yanked Kuroo’s arm to get him to stand back up properly. “I can’t believe you got us in trouble like that! Our technique mark is going to tank!” You complained to your partner, glaring up at him. Damn him and his stupidly tall height. What gave him the right for his head to be that high up anyways?

“We’ll just make it up by getting 100% purity in this lab then,” Kuroo said with a confident shrug. Your annoyed expression fell and was replaced by one filled with hope, but shortly reverted back to a look of annoyance when Kuroo said, “You have me, after all.”


	3. Third Year

“Hey, (l/n)?” Your supervisor said as he looked up from his bench. “I think we don’t have enough sodium biphosphate for your upcoming experiment.” He pointed to direct your attention to the now empty bottle sitting on the side of the bench. You let out a sigh as you took off your lab coat and hung it on the coat rack, exchanging it for your jacket. You’ve been going in and out of the laboratory countless of times today to run around the department delivering memos for your supervisor. And now, you’ve been tasked to walk all the way across campus to where the chemistry stores were to restock on reagents.

 _Some honors thesis project this is turning out to be_ , you thought to yourself as you placed your hand onto the door handle. “I’ll be back in a bit,” you muttered as you pulled open the door for what must have been the hundredth time today.

As you stepped out of the building, you were greeted by the icy cold breeze of January and was promptly reminded to zip up your jacket. As much as you wanted to show off the outfit you had on today, it was way too cold for fashion and appearances to be considered before warmth. _It’s not like I’ll be seeing anyone I want to impress anyways, I guess_.

The bell rang to signal the beginning of the new hour and students flooded out of the lecture halls as you slowly made your way over to your destination. “Must be nice to walk with a friend,” you mumbled to yourself as you looked at the flocks of people huddled together outside of the buildings, either catching up with one another or hastily making their way over to their next class.

It wasn’t that you didn’t have any friends, though. You were still close to your friends from high school who went to the same university as you, and you had also managed to make a few friends from your first and second years as well. It was just that by the end of second year, everyone had separated into their respective specialties and your schedules no longer aligned with one another’s. Gone were the days where you could ask a friend to finish homework together or save you a spot in the lecture hall. Combined with the fact that all of your free time was being spent in the lab, your third year so far had been an exceedingly lonely experience.

Your mind drifted off to a certain black haired man as you walked through the aisles in search for the reagent you were tasked with finding. Your impression of him when you first met in first year was horrible —you took him for a cocky, know-it-all asshole who probably came to class just to check out, and probably pick up, girls. You stifled a laugh. Oh how wrong you were. After spending the entire year with him as his lab partner, you realized that his actual personality was a far cry from the brainless narcissistic playboy you had initially took him for. He was a clumsy idiot who always grumbled about how he didn’t understand how to use social media, and was also probably the biggest biology nerd you’d met in your entire schooling career. The way his eyes would light up whenever your bench-side conversations would drift over to cell biology never failed to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling deep inside of you that never failed to bring a smile to your lips.

 _I wonder how Kuroo’s doing_ , you wondered to yourself as you skipped over to the next aisle. Since the beginning of the school year, you hadn’t seen the man at all, with your course schedules clashing with each other’s and your honors projects keeping the two of you equally as busy. The evenings the two of you had spent together last year, either on the train on the way home after a long day in the lab or in one of the departmental study rooms cramming for the next exam, now started to feel like a page out of the history books. You hated to admit it, but you knew you definitely missed the man’s presence and the coy jokes he brought along with him.

“Oya oya,” a familiar voice chuckled from behind you. “Didn’t expect to bump into you here of all places.” You turned around and a smile graced on your face when you realized who the mysterious voice belonged to.

“Didn’t expect to see you here either,” you grinned, subconsciously unzipping the thick jacket you had on. Kuroo certainly had a knack for popping up out of nowhere just when your thoughts drifted off towards him. First when you were assigned as partners and now when you somehow bumped into him in the chemistry stores. _What even were the chances?_ “You here for reagents too?” You asked as you grabbed onto the last bottle of sodium biphosphate that you were reaching for earlier.

“Yeah,” Kuroo said as he scratched the back of his head. “I’m actually here for that also.” He pointed at the bottle in your hands. “That’s the last one too I think,” he grumbled as he walked over to the adjacent row in hopes of finding and extra bottle that was just misplaced. “What are the odds, right?”

“Do you need it urgently? You can have it,” you insisted as you pushed the bottle into his hands in spite of Kuroo’s refusal. “I’m not really in a huge rush for it. I can wait for the restock,” you explained as Kuroo looked as you quizzically. He shook his head and lightly pushed your hands away. “I’m going to go off on a hunch and guess that you actually need it for your experiment, don’t you?”

Your cheeks lightly flushed, and you prayed to whatever supreme being out there that Kuroo hadn’t noticed. “It can wait…” You repeated as you looked down at the ground in an attempt to hide your face from the taller man. Oh, if only the ground could swallow you whole!

Kuroo narrowed his eyes at your avoidance of eye contact and chuckled to himself once he deduced the source of your change in behavior. “It’s fine, I’m just replenishing inventory for my lab. You can have it,” he gently said, happily patting your hair. You looked up at him in awe, and immediately shook your head to recalibrate yourself when the thought that you might have looked _smitten_ with the man dawned on you.

_I don’t like him!… Not in that way… At least…_

Kuroo snorted as he tried to stifle a chuckle. He had a good guess to the reason behind the conflicted expression you had on.

“You can have it,” he continued to insist, placing his hands on his hips. “On the condition that you treat me to a coffee instead.” he winked.

“Th-thank you!” You sputtered out, desperately trying to suppress the growing blush on your face. “We can… go to a coffee shop after this?” You asked, the words slowly coming out of you as you read Kuroo’s expression to test the waters. “If you’re okay with that, of course!” You added on, worried that you had come on too strong.

“Let’s head over to pay for this,” Kuroo said as he turned you around and pushed you over to the register. “And then we can get that coffee, yeah?”

—

“You got… tea?” You asked, a quizzical, yet somehow still judgmental, look etched onto your face.

“Oolong tastes good and is good for you, so yeah. Tea,” Kuroo explained as he set down his mug and pulled out the chair across from you before sitting down himself.

“What kind of old man are you even,” you snickered as you downed another mouthful of what was probably your fourth coffee of the day. Kuroo chuckled in response to your teasing.

“At least I’ll get to old age,” he shrugged as he folded his arms in front of him. “At the rate you’re drinking coffee, I’d be surprised if you made it past the weekend.” You shot him a dirt look as a shit eating grin made its way onto his face, confident that you had no retort up your sleeve this time.

“Touché.”

“You know,” Kuroo started with a smirk growing on his face, “I believe that makes 13 wins for me and only 7 for you.”

Your eyes narrowed. You? Lose to Kuroo in retorts?

“Why did you leave out the 5 times I had to help the pitiful you with your phone, hm?” You asked as you smugly sipped on your coffee, noting Kuroo’s eyes divert away from yours. It was your chance to turn the tables on him now.

“OK, fine, it’s 13-12,” he conceded as he loudly sighed. “I’m still in the lead, so I don’t get why you’re so happy about this,” he said, noticing that your smug grin had stayed on your face.

“Oh please, it’ll only be a matter of time before I inevitably beat you again,” you sang with a shrug, dramatically tossing a lock of your hair behind your shoulder.

Kuroo grinned and he leaned in closer to you from his side of the table. “We should hang out more then,” he started, paying close attention to any changes in your expression to gauge his next course of action. You nodded in agreement as you took another sip of your coffee. “Wanna study together on the weekends?” He suggested, carefully testing each word as it rolled off of his tongue.

He let out a silent sigh of relief when your smile widened and you nodded your head. _Thank the heavens_ , he thought.

“I’d like that,” you smiled as you set down your mug onto the table. “Do you want to meet here Saturday morning at 10 then?”

Kuroo hummed in agreement as he closed his eyes and leaned back into his chair, relieved that everything had gone in his favor. He glanced over at his watch. “Oh shit,” he muttered as he jolted up from his chair. You looked up and tilted your head to the side. What was Kuroo doing now?

“It’s been an hour since we left chem stores. We need to get you back to your lab,” he hastily said as he grabbed the two of your mugs to return to the counter, then quickly returned to throw on his bag and drag you out the door with him.

—

“Yo Yakkun,” Kuroo said into the receiver. Rather than receiving a greeting back, he was met with the beeping of the disconnect tone. “Fucking Yaku,” he cursed under his breath as he redialled the man’s number.

“What do you want, you pain-in-the-ass Kuroo,” the voice on the other hand asked, clearly annoyed.

“It’s an emergency.”

He could hear the man jump up from the other end and chuckled silently to himself. _Oh Yaku._

“What do you need? Did you get sent to the Dean’s office for suspicious activities?”

Kuroo’s nose twitched in annoyance. “Why is your first thought that I caught up in something bad?” He barked, rolling his eyes while Yaku laughed in the background. “I’m a kind, innocent person!”

“I mean,” Yaku struggled between fits of laughter, “You’re kind of suspicious looking with your dumb hair.”

Kuroo rolled his eyes. On a normal day, he might have given Yaku a piece of his mind, but not today. Today, he needed a favor from his friend no matter the cost. He would just have to suck it up… For a day. Yaku can learn the consequences of making fun of him tomorrow instead.

“No, I need your advice on what to wear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to decide if I should post chapter 4 tomorrow or this weekend..


	4. Fourth Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the reason why one of the tags is "yaku deserves an award for dealing with kuroo"

“Oi, Yakkun,” Kuroo pestered as he repeatedly poked at the blond man’s cheek to get his attention. “Yakkuuuuun,” he continued, drawing out the second syllable in the nickname. With a sigh, Yaku lifted a hand from his keyboard and swatted Kuroo’s hand away from his face. “What do you want, you pain-in-the-ass Kuroo?”

“I’m going to be the better person and pretend you didn’t just insult my lovely name,” huffed Kuroo as leaned away from his friend. “How’s (f/n) doing, do you know?” he asked, now resting his cheek in his hand. “You guys are close, yeah?”

“Don’t you see her every week when you meet up to “write” your honors thesis?” Yaku deadpanned as he stared Kuroo straight in the eye with his hands raised up in air quotations, knowing full well that the two always ended up stress eating rather than working on their papers.

“Well yeah, but that’s at night,” Kuroo yawned as he lazily stretched in his seat. Early morning classes were the bane of his existence to begin with, and paired with the many late nights he’s been pulling as his deadline inched closer each day, it wasn’t a stretch to say that he was _quite_ deep in sleep debt. “You’re the only one who gets to see her during the day!” As Yaku opened his mouth to retort, Kuroo clarified, “When she’s not stressed out about writing a dumb paper.”

“Why do you make it sound like the two of you are nighttime vigilantes or something,” Yaku muttered under his breath as he glared at his high school friend. “I only have one class with her, and it’s an elective course on social psychology. You know we don’t take that course seriously, we just need to pass it. She’s asleep half the time, honestly. But so am I, so I could be wrong.” Kuroo grumbled quietly in response.

“Why are you fixated on her anyways,” Yaku continued to ask, shifting the topic with a knowing look on his face. “ Do you like her or something?” Kuroo immediately launched into a coughing fit and slammed down the thermos he was holding, opting instead to use his hand to hit his chest to dislodge the tea he had inhaled into his windpipe.

Meanwhile, Yaku chuckled in amusement, watching his best friend sputter out incoherent sentences in denial as his face reddened with each passing second. _Oh, he had it soooo bad_.

“I’m more worried about _her_ liking _me_ ,” Kuroo finally managed to stammer out. “You know, the other day she purposely went to the washroom on my floor. I think she was trying to bump into me.”

“Kuroo,” Yaku started, annoyance starting to once again find its way onto his face, “You do realize that she’s got a lecture on that floor, right?”

“What about when she texted me to ask if I wanted a tea delivery?” Kuroo offered, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he tried to think up another instance that he could use to prove your supposed infatuation. “She was all the way on the other side of campus,” he added to further support his point.

Yaku groaned into the palm of his hand. “You do realize that she texted me too, right?” He let out a sigh. _Should’ve chosen a school far away from this mess_ , he thought as he stared at a now red-faced Kuroo who was running his hands through his mop of black hair. For as long as he’s known the man for, he’s always known Kuroo as someone who was able to calmly control and steer a situation to suit his purposes. Yeah, he was annoying, but the man was unarguably charismatic and poised. He was as crafty and clever off the court as he was on the court. To see him this flustered for once… 

_Might as well have some fun with this, I suppose,_ Yaku sighed.

“Aren’t you trying a little too hard to convince yourself that _she_ likes _you_ instead of the other way around?” he asked, closing the lid of his laptop to offer Kuroo his full attention.

“No, I’m proving to you,” Kuroo pointed at the shorter man, “that she likes me.”

“Yeah, no. You’ve just been showing me how badly you have it for her.”

“What!” Kuroo spluttered, having been caught off guard by Yaku’s question. “There… There’s no way!” He continued to insist as Yaku threw him a dubious look. “Okay, how about this. Just last Tuesday she waited for four hours,” he said as he lifted up four fingers in front of his friend’s face to emphasize his point, “just so that we could take the train home together. She waited for four hours. For me! If that isn’t a clear sign of a crush on me—“

“—Kuroo,” Yaku interrupted, punching the taller man’s arm in annoyance. “The two of you go home together all the time. I don’t see how this is any different. Just admit you like her, sheesh.”

“Oh my _god_ Yakkun,” Kuroo whined as he slumped onto the table. “Can you just work with me here?” He continued, burying his face into his arms in hopes that he could just disappear from his spot.

“If it makes you feel any better,” The blond offered, glancing over at Kuroo from the side, “She’s probably as annoying as you with the questioning.” Kuroo looked up from his spot, hope seemingly glimmering in his eyes. “You’re both annoying, for the record,” Yaku clarified. 

“So she asks about me too,” Kuroo chuckled darkly to himself. “If this isn’t proof—“

“—This is proof that you should just grow up and ask her out, you wimpy chicken head,” Yaku cut in.

Just as Kuroo was about to launch into a protest, a light knock on the window he was sitting next to drew his attention outside, earning a quiet sigh of relief from Yaku. _Rescue at last._

“I’ll catch you later, Yakkun,” Kuroo bided as he grabbed his stuff and waltzed over to where you were standing by the door, the spring in his step not going unnoticed by the said man.

“What a bunch of pain-in-the-ass Kuroos,” he snickered to himself, turning around to face you from where you stood on the other side of the window and offered you a small wave before opening up his laptop and resuming his work.

—

You rubbed your eyes as you leaned back from you laptop and relaxed against the booth. After a week’s worth of work and probably way more caffeine than your system was capable of handling, you had finally managed to scrap together the introduction of your thesis. You looked over at the tower of papers to your right and reached out to return them back into your bag now that you were done with them.

Over the course of the month, you had probably spent every single free break you had with Kuroo at the coffee shop that you were currently in, either looking for journal articles, reading journal articles, or highlighting journal articles. You sighed as you zipped your backpack back up. The tower of papers you had was proof of just how much time you had spent with Kuroo lately.

 _Oh right, Kuroo_ , you thought to yourself, momentarily forgetting that you were not the sole existence in the universe. Perhaps Yaku was right and you were overworking yourself.

You looked in front of you to check up on the man, only to find that Kuroo had fallen fast asleep. As expected, though. He had an early class this morning and had to wake up at the crack of dawn to get to the lecture hall in time. You let out a quiet giggle, noting how innocent he looked when he was asleep —a far cry from his usual smug personality.

“Kuroo? Oi, Kuroo. Kuroo? Kuroooo,” your voice drawled out, gently shaking the sleeping man by the shoulders, eliciting a low grumble from your friend. Drawing in a deep breath, Kuroo sat back up and blinked the sleepiness away from his eyes, reaching his arms out to stretch.

“That was a nice nap,” he yawned, tapping on his space bar to wake his computer back up. He frowned at the wakened screen. “This empty document is not that nice, though.”

“You were asleep, what did you expect?” You chuckled as you peered over at his screen. Just as Kuroo had said, aside from the headers he had put in earlier, his thesis document was still empty.

The man shrugged his shoulders and scratched at the back of his head. “I was hoping that the biochemistry fairies or gods or whatever is out there would take pity on me and write it for me,” he offered as he sifted through his lab notebook.

“Are you ever going to be able to finish your thesis at this rate?” You asked as you observed the man, noticing the way his eyes narrowed behind the black frames sitting atop his nose bridge as his face contorted in exasperation. Noticing the curious expression on your face, Kuroo spun his journal around to give you a look, directing your attention to one of the results tables with his long digits. 

“None of my results even make sense,” he groaned as he slumped back down onto the table. “I should just hand in a document with the words “NOTHING WORKED” in size 80 font, all caps.”

You simply laughed in response and gently patted down his hair in a failed attempt to smooth out his bed hair. “Sounds like science to me.”

He liked your laugh, he decided, as he stared at you with his face pressed against the table. Kuroo’s mind wandered to Yaku’s words from earlier. _Just grow up and ask her out_. “If only it were that easy,” he muttered under his breath.

“Did you say something?” You asked as you started to pack your things up, sliding your laptop back into its case. Kuroo looked up and stared at you for a second before waving his hand in denial. “Nah,” he sang out, masking his current frustration. “Just talking to myself,” he insisted.

You nodded, believing his words, and continued packing up as Kuroo watched you from his spot.

“Ah, but I did want to ask you something,” he tested, looking around in search for the appropriate words to use. How should he word this to not sound too direct or sleazy? He didn’t want to come across as a playboy, but then again, the two of you were good friends so he’d be able to laugh it off _if_ he did accidentally cross that line. But then again, if he didn’t choose the right words, then you might get the wrong idea…

“Yeah?” You hummed, zipping up your backpack and setting it to the side as you gave Kuroo your full attention. _Why couldn’t you still be doing something… This attention is making me go insane_ , he thought.

“Do you.. ah…” he stammered, feeling his cheeks growing warmer by the second. “Do you want to…”

“Want to what?” You asked, confused as to what Kuroo was possibly getting at. You had to admit, it was weird to see him as a stammering mess considering his usual calm and witty demeanour, though you couldn’t quite place your finger on what could have led to him acting like this. It wasn’t like him to hesitate in speaking up his mind.

“Do you want to go to science advising tomorrow with me,” he stuttered out. _Oh my god that is not what I wanted to ask her_ , he thought as regret started to cling onto the edges of his mind.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” you smiled as you gave him a small nod. He had mentioned to you in passing that he had been intending to ask the advisors about graduate scholarships, but hadn’t worked up the nerve to because he hadn’t received any decisions yet. _As if he would get rejected honestly,_ you scoffed to yourself, irritated that the man didn’t seem to realize just how outstanding he was.

You checked your watch and seeing the time, got up from your chair. “Time for me to go back to class,” you said as you walked over to give Kuroo a hug. “Time for Yaku and I to have fun with that wack stream of consciousness professor,” you giggled as you waved goodbye when you released him from your arms.

Recovering from the shock of your hug, Kuroo’s mind once again flashed to him, as Yaku would put it, _chickening_ out and failing to ask you out for dinner. He tightened his grip on the arm of his mug as he groaned into his other hand as soon as you left through the coffee shop’s door.

 _Tomorrow_ , he thought, _Tomorrow I’ll ask her_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll likely have the last chapter up tomorrow :)


	5. Convocation

Your eyes were immediately met with the glaring rays of the sun as you left through the back exit of the convocation hall. Just as you were about to use your newly received diploma as a makeshift visor, a tall figure stepped into view and shielded you from the sun’s blinding light.

“I still wish I could’ve been in there,” they said as you squinted to identify your savior.

“Two tickets per person only, Kuroo,” you laughed as recognition settled upon you and you ran into his arms for a hug.

“Hey, careful! This dumb gown’s being rented for way too much by the hour and I don’t want to lose more money than I already have when I paid to wear this dumb thing,” the said man grumbled as he tightened his hold around your shoulders to return the hug.

“So that’s where you ran off to!” A feminine voice rang out from behind the two of you. You felt Kuroo’s arms immediately disappear from your sides and you looked behind to see who had brought upon the reaction.

“Hey mom,” you laughed out as you made the connection between Kuroo’s sharp movements and the person in front of you. “Hi Auntie,” Kuroo greeted as well, fully bowing to greet the older woman.

“Tetsurou-kun, congratulations on graduating,” your mom beamed, gently pushing on his shoulders to guide him back up to stand straight. “I see you managed to catch this one,” she said, pointing at you. “Thank you, dear.”

Kuroo immediately straightened his back and nodded, “It’s my job as her best friend,” he insisted.

 _Best friend, huh_? His words had disappointed you a little, but when you really thought about it, it was nothing but the truth. Since bumping into him again in third year, the two of you had practically inseparable. After finding out that Kuroo lived alone in the school dormitories, your mother had insisted that he frequent by for dinner, leading to the man becoming a regular presence at the dinner table. Perhaps best friend was a bit of an understatement at this point. _He’s more of a long-lost uncle probably…_ you chuckled, fondly remembering your teasing of Kuroo’s “weird old man tastes”.

You were snapped out of your thoughts by a light poke on the cheek. You glared at the man standing beside you and he responded by pointing at your mom and miming the action of using a camera. “Your mom asked if you wanted to take a picture with me,” he explained.

“Oh, yeah,” you breathed out as you quickly brushed your hair from your face. “Do I look OK?” You asked Kuroo. Kuroo’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before his face returned to its resting smirk and he reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind your ear.

“Now you’re perfect,” he smiled as he looked back over to your mother and gave her a thumbs up, snaking his arm around your waist with his free hand to pull you in closer for the photo.

You scooted closer to Kuroo and smiled at the camera, though your thoughts were starting to run rampant. Was it just you, or did Kuroo look _flustered_ for a second? _No, stop imagining things_ , you chided silently. _What if I’m the one who looked flustered?_ His body pressed so close against yours such that you could feel his every inhale and exhale was definitely not helping you keep your calm.

“The two of you look so adorable, your mom gushed as she handed Kuroo and your phones back to you, with Kuroo once again deeply bowing in gratitude for your mother’s help, much to your her embarrassment. On any other day, you would have never given up the opportunity to tease Kuroo, but today, you found that you were too lost in your thoughts to think of something witty to say.

“Do you want to sit by the garden? It’s probably quieter there,” Kuroo said as he walked back over to you, your mom having finally been able to get the man to stop with the formalities. “I’d imagine those shoes are starting to kill you, since you’re usually quite a bit shorter than me,” he joked as he pointed at the heels that you had on for the occasion. You nodded quietly, and the two of you made your way over to the flower garden and sat down on the stone borders.

“So what are you going to do after?”

“Grad school, duh,” you replied, knowing fully that Kuroo already knew the answer and was asking for the specifics instead. “I just heard back from Caltech this morning,” you happily continued, giving the man a wide smile.

“Nice, got into Caltech, huh,” Kuroo said as he brought his index finger up to his lips. “I’ll be nearby at Stanford,” he said, making air quotations with his fingers as he said the word ‘nearby’, earning a slap on the back and a chuckle from you. “Same state, close enough.”

“Hmmm… For what degree though?” You asked as you looked over at him, issuing a silent challenge to the man.

“A PhD, obviously,” Kuroo and you blurted out at the same time. “Jinx,” you grinned as you raised your hand up in a peace sign to signify your victory. “You owe me… A free peer review of my next paper,” you decided, nodding your head up and down at the perfect punishment you had just thought up.

“Will I get an acknowledgement though?” Kuroo asked, leaning closer towards you without you noticing. “I’m not going to be doing it if I won’t be mentioned, y’know,” he teased, a sly smirk on his face. You rolled your eyes in response.

“Sure, on the condition that I can add a footnote saying that you use _common names_ for acids like a peasant,” you replied, ruffling his hair. 

“Hey! I spent ages trying to tame that this morning!” Kuroo whined, trying to fix the strands that you had loosened.

“Can’t tell, you’re still a rooster head to me,” you sang out loud as you jumped up to your feet. “Though I think it looks better like that anyways,” you continued with your back now facing Kuroo. Turning on your heel, you shot a massive smile back at your best friend. “I’ll miss you, you know.”

With the sun shining behind your back against the brilliant blue of the sky, Kuroo swore he saw the outline of wings on your sides. With a soft smile, he got up onto his feet and walked up next to you.

“I’ll be nearby,” he promised softly, looking directly into your eyes.

 _When did he get so close?_ You thought to yourself as you diverted your gaze to the side, furiously trying to calm down your beating heart. _Wait, is he leaning towards me? Is he falling? Do I catch him? Can I catch him?_

“But still,” you sputtered, reaching out to grab hold of his arms and then gently pushing him back. _Crisis averted._ “It’s still a couple of hours away.”

Kuroo looked down at your hands on his wrist and frowned. He was sure that the way he felt about you was mutual —heck, he even made Yaku stay up all night with him to plan this all out yesterday! —so why were you pushing him away?

“We can always video call,” he offered, rotating his wrists to grab onto your hands, interlocking his fingers with yours. With another step forward, Kuroo was now standing directly in front of you, the tips of your shoes touching.

“Well, that’s not something you can do when you get a girlfr—“ you cut yourself off as you realized what you were just about to say. You squeezed your eyes shut as you tried to step back and move out of his grasp, but Kuroo simply chuckled and pulled you back into his hold

“What if the person I’m video calling is my girlfriend then?” He mumbled as he brought your hands up to his lips, lightly dusting your knuckles with soft kisses. Your eyes snapped open in shock in response, whipping your head back to face Kuroo in disbelief.

“Am I misunderstanding something?” You stammered, wide-eyed from the sudden development. Kuroo sighed and released your hands, finding a new home for them against your back.

“Only if you accept,” he whispered into your ear as he rested his chin against your shoulder and tightened the embrace, silently pleading for a favourable response despite Yaku having yelled repeatedly the night before that it would be no other answer but “yes”.

Your hand shot up to card your fingers through his hair, and you felt him relax into your shoulders at your touch. “Well,” you started as you pulled away to get a better look at his face. Kuroo stood back up to his original height, held his breath and squeezed his eyes shut, anxiously pleading for it to be the word he’s envisioned countless of times when he played this scenario out in his head.

You giggled at the sight and you tiptoed to ruffle his hair once more before placing a soft peck on his lips. Kuroo’s eyes shot open immediately from the contact, and he looked at you —flabbergasted and in disbelief.

“Can I—“ he started.

“You can take it as a yes,” you confirmed with a laugh as you flung your arms around his neck, meeting his lips with yours once more.

—

“Kuroo, can I borrow your phone? Mine’s dead,” you said as you shoved the device back into your bag.

“Yeah,” he said as he handed his phone to you. “Passcode’s 2-2-6-3.”

_Kuroo’s passcode is based on the 22 carbons and 6 double bonds in DHA, which is an omega-3 fatty acid. Why am I not surprised?_

“You giant nerd,” you said as you took his phone, eliciting a complaint from Kuroo. You were about to let out another teasing remark when you noticed his screen wallpaper from your peripheral.

“You know what, I love nerds, so it’s OK,” you said as you gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! Thank you everyone for reading :)


End file.
